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Thierry's Lore Tidbits
Thierry Boulanger, the main director and writer of The Messenger, has provided small pieces of lore in the official Discord server. This is a compilation of important lore tidbits not explicitly mentioned within the game itself. October 19, 2018 (#1) Conversation Takeaways * Ruxxtin's gear most likely did not originally belong to him. October 19, 2018 (#2) Conversation Takeaways * Emerald Golem and Howling Grotto both have deeper backstories. October 20-21, 2018 Conversation Takeaways * Blue Robes are retired Messengers, so Blue Robes members no longer carry the title of "Messenger." There is only ever one Messenger at a time. * Messengers did not always have greed demons on their side. At some point in time, greed demons betrayed demonkind and teamed up with Messengers. Before this event, Messengers used to just plain up die. * The Shopkeeper freaks out when she learns that Soldier died, because the Corrupted Future is an imminent threat, and there aren't many remaining Blue Robes members. They are at a point in their timeless war where a very powerful demon is very close to entering the Tower of Time. * Over time, Messengers built frames around rifts to help future Messengers. October 23, 2018 (#1) Conversation Takeaways * All mushrooms with faces in Quillshroom Marsh were once living human beings. October 23, 2018 (#2) Conversation Takeaways * The Tower of Time is aware of all past, present, and future events. * The bodies lying on the floor of the Tower of Time are the actual dead bodies of Messengers who failed to make it through the Tower of Time challenge. * Due to the complex nature of time travel and alternate universes, the Messenger that breaks the Curse wouldn't necessarily have to be the final Messenger, and it could be reliant on a very important event happening to a later Messenger, hypothetically. * The Tower of Time HQ changes appearance to reflect the Messenger who's there. * Messengers from all different time periods visit the Tower of Time HQ at their leisure in no particular order from the shop's perspective. October 27, 2018 Conversation Takeaways * There is unused dialogue in the script (BARMATHAZEL_GAUNTLET_INTRO). You would return to the final room of the Underworld in 8-bit and have a conversation with Barma'thazël. In that conversation, Barma'thazël mentions that he can use scrying magic. That cut section of the game was originally involved in obtaining the Key of Chaos. * Demon magic is the root of the scroll's magic. October 29, 2018 Conversation Takeaways * Health jars are based off of old sake bottles. October 30, 2018 (#1) Conversation Takeaways * Both the flood and the demon attack of Forlorn Temple set humans back many generations in technology. October 30, 2018 (#2) Conversation Takeaways * Messengers are possibly unable to time travel to a time period before the scroll's creation. October 30, 2018 (#3) Conversation Takeaways * The Mask is destroyed inside The Void, which is important. October 30, 2018 (#4) Conversation Takeaways * Guardian Gods and sky giants are completely different groups. * There really shouldn't be frames around the checkpoint rifts in Elemental Skylands or the Music Box. Ninja was originally meant to add the frames himself, but it didn't make it to the final version of the game. * The Tower of Time decides "when" to send a Messenger, treating the "timeless battle" as a rubix cube of potential timelines that it's trying to solve. October 31, 2018 (#1) Conversation Takeaways * The Iron Hood was possibly a Messenger in a cycle before Ninja. October 31, 2018 (#2) Conversation Takeaways * Each Messenger sees their own version of the Tower of Time HQ, so they don't really interact with each other. October 31, 2018 (#3) Conversation Takeaways * The Shopkeeper truly did experience the curse being defeated even though she's helping out Cowboy post-credits. November 9, 2018 (#1) Conversation Takeaways * Some of the demons are Kappa. November 9, 2018 (#2) Note: "Le Shopkeeper" is The Shopkeeper's Steam trading card name and official Twitter username. Conversation Takeaways * The English version of the script is canon. November 11, 2018 Conversation Takeaways * The English version of the script is canon. It's important and somehow linked to The Shopkeeper. November 16, 2018 Conversation Takeaways * Ninja is right-handed if he's facing to the right. * Ninja's draws his sword differently in 8-bit and 16-bit. His hand is always at the sword handle, which is at the top of the sheath in 8-bit and the bottom of the sheath in 16-bit. * Although The Shopkeeper has a super-deep voice in the video, "Shinobi No Kikan," this is not her canon voice. November 18, 2018 Conversation Takeaways * The English version of the script is very canon and related to The Shopkeeper. November 22, 2018 (#1) Conversation Takeaways * The Shopkeeper is not every member of the Blue Robes. November 22, 2018 (#2) Conversation Takeaways * Reiterating that The Void is at the end of time, where all Messengers meet. The Tower of Time is also there. * Thierry at the time was questioned about the appearance of a new Discord channel, called #the-void. Thierry acted as if he was not aware of the new channel. November 22, 2018 (#3) Conversation Takeaways * The Corrupted Future can still exist even though it was prevented by Ninja since it's a branch. * There is a way to make a happy ending for everyone. * SaboTeam can only access a small portion of the archives. November 22, 2018 (#4) Conversation Takeaways * SaboTeam doesn't know anything about #the-void channel shenanigans. November 23, 2018 Conversation Takeaways * Generic narration boxes are not Ninja's own thoughts. November 28, 2018 (#1) Conversation Takeaways * The "one-eyed menace" from the scrying orb vision refers to Barma'thazël. November 28, 2018 (#2) Conversation Takeaways * The structures in Bamboo Creek were built by a non-human race. December 8, 2018 Conversation Takeaways * The Archivist recruited SaboTeam to tell people specific stories. * The Archivist works mysteriously. December 11, 2018 Conversation Takeaways * The Archivist is mysterious. December 12, 2018 Conversation Takeaways * The Archivist is immortal in the sense that he has a theoretically unending natural lifespan, but he's not invincible. December 13, 2018 Conversation Takeaways * Ninja is 2 tiles tall. January 8, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * The community chose to summon Rainbowdragoneyes instead of learning an important hint related to The Shopkeeper's identity. January 8, 2019 / January 10, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * The Archivist is not trying to trick the community. January 16, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * It's not clear if Monk was the most skilled Messenger (the one who obtained the Key of Adventure and Key of Revenge), but she was definitely the strongest Messenger. * Humans couldn't use magic until the scroll came along. * You shouldn't see Time Shards unless you carry the scroll or are in The Void. There's a glitch in the intro of the game with Ninja Village where the two Ranged Kappa can drop Time Shards before you get the scroll, but this shouldn't be a thing. * Carrying the scroll makes you aware and responsive to time magic because Phantom distilled a branch of demon magic into the scroll and made it much more potent. * All demons have some magic, but nothing specialized in time magic. Demons can't see Time Shards or time rifts. They need the scroll in order to be able to use time magic and in order to enter The Void. * Demons want the scroll and want to invade The Void. * The timeline perspective from the Tower of Time is different from Ninja's perspective of his own timeline. It's totally possible that The Shopkeeper met Ninja at Glacial Peak before ever meeting Ninja in the shop in the Catacombs. * Something major happened to the Blue Robes which almost eradicated the Order and forced them to escape The Void until the next Messenger could summon the Tower. (Hypothetically.) January 19, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * The flood turned Searing Crags from an active volcano into a dormant volcano. January 24, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * Even though Thierry wrote both the English and Québécois scripts, the English version of the script is canon. January 25, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * Barma'thazël vanishes before he's killed in the Underworld. * Ninja's agility, Monk's strength, and Barma'thazël's speed respectively lead to Cloudstepping, a spoiler-related ability, and phase-shifting. * Barma'thazël is really fast. January 26, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * The Messenger is just one book in an overall larger universe that The Archivist wants SaboTeam to tell people. * The Archivist wants to recruit enough Messengers to solve the big issue. * "Barma'thazël's Revenge", which starts off with "Picnic Panic," is a trilogy of self-contained sidequests that occur after Ninja's mandatory story. The other two sidequests after Picnic Panic may or may not be told. It's optional stuff that definitely adds to the world-building, but it's not necessary for the larger picture. February 4, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * Pitou is not every character. * The Archivist was not the catalyst who brought forth the demon army. February 5, 2019 (#1) Conversation Takeaways * The Archivist is Thierry's boss. Thierry is only allowed to reveal information that The Archivist wants him to, otherwise The Archivist gets angry. * The Iron Hood is not The Artificer. * There is something special about the Tower of Time statues. * The Archivist wants to recruit enough Messengers to solve "the big issue," which is something complex, so he's slowing ramping up a group of people. February 5, 2019 (#2) Conversation Takeaways * Picnic Panic won't be lore-intensive, but it will still be a fun little self-contained side adventure with Ninja shenanigans. February 7, 2019 (The Archivist) Note: This isn't a Thierry Lore Tidbit, but The Archivist hopped out of #the-void channel to add an important react emote to a message in a different channel. Conversation Takeaways * Although The Archivist wanted players to observe Ninja's story first, there is another character in The Messenger that has important value and should be focused on. February 7-8, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * There is only 1 scroll. * Time portals don't show up until after you defeat Barma'thazël because The Shopkeeper did something to the scroll to make Ninja more attuned to it. * There is 1 Void and many alternate timelines. * Paradoxes don't cause a space-time collapse but can mess with the paradox beholder's mind. For example, becoming your own shopkeeper. That why the Order of the Blue Robes wears blue robes. * The Shopkeeper is not Ninja. * The Tower of Time is like a time machine. Ninja enters the Tower of Time at every checkpoint. * The Tower of Time appears briefly to grab Ninja and fly him to where (when) he is needed. * The Tower of Time goes to the scroll. * The Void materialized as a way to balance the existence of all these alternate timelines. It acts like an anti-infinity so that the balance is kept. * If something comes from The Void or enters The Void, it becomes canon across all timelines. It becomes a single instance of itself. * The Corrupted Future was almost named the "Corrupted Void." It is the only area in the game without 8-bit/16-bit transitions because it's stuck in 8-bit and the 16-bit version is what Ninja has to prevent. * Every time there is a fork in time, both happen and become their own timeline. Carrying the scroll lets you create your own linear timeline. * Just as Ninja visited the Corrupted Future to have scope on why he had to win, The Archivist shows the player Ninja's world, to give the player scope on the future The Archivist wants to be prevented. February 12, 2019 (#1) Conversation Takeaways * The Blue Robes know The Archivist as "The Archivist" rather than his previous moniker, "The Alchemist." February 12, 2019 (#2) Conversation Takeaways * There was a "Curiosity" VoteTri option during a voting event with The Archivist, which would have revealed a creature from Voodkin Island ahead of time. It was not the winning option, but if did win, it would have revealed a creature bigger than a Guile Pile. * Voodkins are cousins to the Phobekins, but they are driven by voodoo rather than fear. February 13, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * The Tower of Time showcases important figures specifically for that Messenger. February 18, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * Reiterating that Picnic Panic will not be lore-intensive. February 23, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * Picnic Panic takes place in an alternate timeline, and the Ruxxtin in the Picnic Panic trailer is also an alternate version of Ruxxtin. * Ninja's original timeline and the alternate timeline are almost identical. Ninja and Barma'thazël traverse from the original timeline to the alternate timeline, though, so Ninja and Barma'thazël aren't alternates. * Ruxxtin's lab has a green crystal ball, confirmed to be a scrying orb. This may be linked to how alternate Ruxxtin knows about Ninja. February 24, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * Like mentioned by Thierry on February 7, 2019, there is only 1 scroll. * If Ninja goes to the Picnic Panic timeline, carrying the scroll, that means no Messenger exists in that universe carrying the scroll. March 19, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * SaboTeam only have clear instructions from The Archivist and Ninja's book. They don't have any other books from The Archives. * The Archivist has selected the 2nd book he wants SaboTeam to tell a story of, but SaboTeam doesn't know what it is yet. * The Archivist has been temporarily replaced with the Clockwork Concierge for ARG-related activities. March 22, 2019 (#1) Conversation Takeaways * The Archivist and the Clockwork Concierge are the only characters that existed before the flood. * SaboTeam might be held hostage by The Archivist. This is why SaboTeam is forced to delete Clockwork Concierge's spoiler-related posts about unreleased story content. March 22, 2019 (#2) Conversation Takeaways * The Blue Robes sent The Bowman to deliver the scroll to Ninja Village as quickly as possible. When The Shopkeeper mentions, "We gave you a scroll," to Ninja, The Shopkeeper uses "we" to refer to the collective group of the Order of the Blue Robes. * The Bowman arrived late to Ninja Village. Ideally, The Bowman was supposed to give Ninja a proper explanation, but he had no time. * If the scroll takes its carrier to a dimension or time period that the carrier doesn't belong to, only the scroll gets to stay there. The moment the carrier gives up the scroll, the carrier disappears. This scenario happened to both The Bowman and to Ninja. * The Shopkeeper acts detached since so many people have died during the timeless war, and it's too emotionally taxing to care about each new person unless they've survived for a good while. March 26, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * SaboMart is not The Archivist. March 29, 2019 (#1) Conversation Takeaways * Although Ninja defeats Monk in her boss fight, he would definitely lose to her at arm wrestling. March 29, 2019 (#2) Conversation Takeaways * The Artificer has some connection to Monk. * The Artificer is not, and has never been, a human. April 2, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * The scroll is not destroyed after the events of The Messenger. * Even though the Mask's curse is broken, there can still be carriers who use the scroll's power for other reasons. April 7, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * The Shopkeeper sees adventurers one at a time. April 20-21, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * Monk "planted the seed" by driving out the demons and bringing Butterfly Matriarch to Rivière Turquoise, but the grove's restoration did not require Monk's presence afterwards. April 25, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * There are multiple timelines and only 1 Void, so any other Messenger or event could simply be from another timeline. * There is only 1 Tower of Time while it is in the Void. April 26, 2019 Note: Earlier in the ARG, it was revealed by the Clockwork Concierge that the Demon King fought in The Messenger was not the real Demon King and was merely a fake copy. The true remnants of the Demon King are locked up in the Clockwork Castle. During the ARG on April 26, Barma'thazël infiltrated the Clockwork Castle and located the Demon King's remnants. The Clockwork Castle's seals were strengthened, so the Demon General's attempts in freeing the Demon King were thwarted. Conversation Takeaways * Before the events of Picnic Panic, Barma'thazël broke into the Clockwork Castle in an attempt to free the Demon King's remnants. April 29, 2019 (#1) Conversation Takeaways * The Tower of Time challenge pushes a Messenger to their limit and kills them if they are unworthy, to prevent the scroll being lost to the demons later. * The canon Tower of Time runthrough would involve no Quarble + permadeath. Quarble's presence in the Tower of Time for gameplay purposes should be disregarded. * The Void is a big thing to fathom, so the Tower of Time protects the sanity of Messengers as they travel through the Tower. It provides a frame and familiarity that helps Messengers make it through the challenge relatively undisturbed. April 29, 2019 (#2) Conversation Takeaways * As revealed by the Clockwork Concierge in the ARG, Ninja did not fight the actual Demon King, and the remnants of the true Demon King are locked up in Clockwork Castle. * The Demon King copy fought in Forlorn Temple is the same copy that initiates the assault on 8-bit and 16-bit Ninja Village. May 6, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * Clockwork Concierge is under the same NDA as SaboTeam, which is why some of his messages about unreleased lore content get deleted. * Clockwork Concierge has free will. * Clockwork Concierge sort of has a British accent. May 21-22, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * Quarble takes you back in time before you die. * Ninja doesn't go back in time when Quillble revives the Queen of Quills because Ninja was carrying the scroll. * The scroll's perspective is canon. May 29, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * A Music Note crystallizes either when a specific emotion repeats enough times, or when a specific event has a big enough ripple effect / especially high intensity. * The Music Notes represent the world's intention to save itself. * Ninja was not the Messenger who obtained the Key of Revenge. * In its effort to save itself, the world gives up on its utopia fantasy and embraces reality, the good along with the bad. Even though Chaos could be potentially viewed as one of the more negative Notes, it is part of a genuine whole. * The notes of contrasting characteristics form a balance together. June 21, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * After Ninja hands the scroll over to Soldier, Ninja is teleported back to the shop by The Shopkeeper in order to protect him. * Time is stopped in The Void, but you still owe it that time somehow. If you've been committed to The Void and then go outside of The Void, you age at an accelerated rate until that debt is paid. An arbitrary example is aging 1 year per minute spent outside The Void, so if you spent more than 60 years in The Void, you have only 1 hour to spend outside before dying to natural causes. Another arbitrary example is that maybe a millennia in The Void means you have 50 years left outside of it. * From Ninja's perspective, Ninja first met The Shopkeeper in an Autumn Hills shop. From The Shopkeeper's perspective, she encountered Ninja at the top of Glacial Peak before encountering him in the Autumn Hills shop. The Shopkeeper still needs to guide Ninja to the top of Glacial Peak in order for the Autumn Hills shop meeting to happen. * The Tower of Time only appears for who it's meant to appear for. The Tower became bigger than the Order and took a mind of its own. Now the Order does their best to react to the Tower of Time's instinct and to pass on the scroll to the one who's meant to have it. * Thierry mentions there's an undiscovered big piece of lore hiding in plain sight. * Thierry hints that "The Letter H" shop upgrade in the Discord shop branch holds importance. July 12, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * There's only one Monk. Monk in Picnic Panic is the same Monk Ninja meets during the main game. * Monk eventually teleports from the Picnic Panic timeline and into Ninja's timeline. July 17, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * The line, "The demons are not only fighting us across time, but across space, too," refers to multiverses, which can be confusing. To make things easier to understand, it can be described simply as "timelines" only. In the main game, Ninja travels back and forth 500 years within his own timeline. When leaving for Picnic Panic, he side-steps into another timeline, and again he travels back and forth on it in an interval of 500 years. * There's a legit cause for events leading up to this, which future installments should build upon. * The Shopkeeper experiences a very brief lapse of cynicism after Ninja summons the Tower of Time at the top of Glacial Peak, illustrated by her surprise. Anyway, The Shopkeeper lost faith a while ago. July 27, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * Timelines form "procedurally," and you have a bit of time to affect them before they commit to what happened, kind of like concrete. This is (probably) why Quarble must be sent within 10 seconds to save a Messenger from a permanent death. * The Voidwalker role in the ARG should bring some clarity at a later date. The main characters have been hiding in plain sight for a while. July 29, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * Clockwork Concierge existed before the flood, and it's probably not possible to time travel to a point earlier than the scroll's creation. August 5, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * The Archivist blames himself. August 7, 2019 (#1) Conversation Takeaways * Picnic Panic is canon. * Wallaxer has lore relevance. * Wallaxer should be the only enemy that is shared between Messenger Island and Voodkin Island that lacks a tropical reskin. The normal skeletal Birdies present inside the Voodoo Heart during the Dark Messenger races are a mistake, and they should be Tropical Birdies. August 7, 2019 (#2) Conversation Takeaways * Voodkins live in a little imaginary world where they fight you but you're not fighting them. August 8, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * Like revealed by Thierry on October 30, 2018, Ninja was originally supposed to place frames around the time rifts of Elemental Skylands and the Music Box since he was the first Messenger to ever explore those areas, but this feature didn't make it into the final game. Along with Elemental Skylands and the Music Box, Ninja was the first ever Messenger to visit the Sunken Shrine. August 25, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * Ruxxtin can use scrying magic. * Manfred is the last sky serpent. * It's more appropriate to call Manfred a "sky serpent" rather than a "dragon." * Dragons carry meaning to most people already, so sky serpents were chosen to avoid the preconceptions. * One of The Shopkeeper's cabinet rants touches upon the concept of dragons and a metaphorical relationship with conquering fears. However, this dragon talk is unrelated to the lore. * Ruxxtin wanted to raise an army of the dead in order to impress the Demon King and get recruited to eventually serve The Fleshmancer. * The Catacombs crypt is a gold mine of raw material for a necromancer such as Ruxxtin, and he binges on it. September 25, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * The frames built at checkpoints stabilize the rifts that lead to The Void. * There are checkpoints with either missing frames or broken frames. The rifts are still there, but they are not stable enough to be traversed since the frame isn't whole, or at least whole enough. Alternatively, the rift might have died off over time, causing the frame to give. * Ninja was originally meant to build frames around the checkpoint rifts in areas never visited by Messengers. If this feature was implemented, the player would have been able to earn an achievement called "Hallowed Be Thy Frame" for building their own frames. * The Rope Dart was originally intended to be the Queen of Quills's bramble whip, obtained after defeating her, but it would have been too uneven to have some bosses give upgrades and others not, so it was kept to the shop. * The Queen of Quills was originally intended to introduce the Rope Dartable rings. She still sort of does, but not with the same function. * Originally, Monk was intended to use a staff rather than a whip after being cured, which she would have used to break the ice off of the lanterns in Glacial Peak. Monk does wield a staff in her Tower of Time statue, though, which reflects this initial intention. January 15, 2020 Conversation Takeaways * The Archivist has time travel capabilities unrelated to the scroll. January 17, 2020 Conversation Takeaways * The pink drippy substance in Wallaxer's mouth is jam. fr:Révélations de Thierry pt-br:Pedacinhos da Lore do Thierry ru:Отсылки от Thierry Category:Lore